The invention relates to the general field of telecommunications.
More particularly it relates to managing and routing a communication to a user by means of an application server of a voice over IP (VoIP) core network, such as for example an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) core network, and in a context in which a plurality of terminals are linked to the same user identifier on the voice over IP core network.
A preferred but non-limiting application of the invention thus lies in the IMS centralized service (ICS) as developed by the 3GPP standard, and as described in particular in the document 3GPP TS 23.292 entitled “Technical specification group services and system aspects; IP multimedia subsystem centralized services; stage 2”, Release 11, v11.0.0, June 2011.
In general, the ICS service seeks to use an IMS core network to offer multimedia services to a mobile user independently of the access network with which the user is connected (i.e. a circuit-switched or a packet-switched access network). Circuit-switched access network users can thus benefit from new IMS services while continuing to benefit from the services conventionally available on circuit-switched access networks, with those services now being managed by the IMS core network.
For this purpose, the ICS service relies in particular on triggering a service centralization and continuity application server (SCC-AS) in charge of ensuring continuity of services for various access networks. The SCC-AS server has in particular the function of managing the terminating of each communication passing therethrough by selecting the domain (packet-switched or circuit-switched) to which the communication is to be routed. The functions of the SCC-AS server are described in greater detail in the document 3GPP TS 24.292 entitled “Technical specification group core network and terminals; IP multimedia core network subsystem; centralized services; stage 3”, Release 10, v10.5.0, September 2001.
Furthermore, the 3GPP standard provides the possibility of a user registering a plurality of addresses of contact with the IMS core network, all linked to the same identifier of that user on the core network (e.g. an SIP address). These addresses of contact may be associated with a plurality of different terminals.
Although the 3GPP standard provides for the possibility of the SCC-AS server taking account of multiple terminals linked to the same identifier of the user on the core network, the standard does not describe how this might or must be implemented.